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Besides not running mysql_upgrade after upgrading MySQL from major subversion to major subversion (E.g 5.1 to 5.5), having the wrong permissions/ownership on the performance_schema folder and files within the data directory can also cause this error.

For example, a fresh install of MySQL 5.5's RPM will set the ownership of that folder and files within it to root:root. To fix this, you will need to change the ownership to mysql:mysql.